DE 10 2014 104 065 B4 describes a safety device for arrangement on a floor device of an air passenger bridge. The safety device is positioned in a region on the floor device above which an opened aircraft door is present when the coupling module of the air passenger bridge is guided to the aircraft and the door of the aircraft is open. The fuselage of the aircraft can drop slightly on the loading of the aircraft. If the coupling module having the floor device is directly in front of the door opening of the aircraft, the opened door can collide with the floor device if the aircraft drops in height over the contact area. It can in particular be the case that sudden downward movements of the aircraft fuselage occur that are due to the stick-slip effect in the landing gear of the aircraft.
The safety device is frequently of a mobile design and is also called a contact shoe or safety shoe. It has to be positioned in the region below the opened aircraft door by the operator of the air passenger bridge on the floor device of the coupling module.
A further safety device is known from DE 201 15 011 U1 that likewise has to be positioned at the required point below the opened aircraft door on the floor device of the coupling module of an air passenger bridge. The safety device has a plurality of switch elements that are activated on a contact of the aircraft door with a support surface at the upper side. If the associated switch elements are correspondingly triggered, a height adjustment device connected to the air passenger bridge and having a corresponding lifting element can be controlled via a control device such that the coupling module is likewise lowered on the downward movement of the aircraft body. The safety device that has become known is of a complex design with a large number of mechanical components and can only be handled with limitations for an operator of the air passenger bridge.
A simplification of the protection of the aircraft door from a collision with a floor device is desirable, in particular when the aircraft body drops suddenly due to the stick-slip effect. The safety device has to be designed for this purpose such that the vertical tracking of the air passenger bridge and thus of the coupling module takes place fast since too great a distance between the opened aircraft door and the floor device cannot be present since the floor device should be aligned at substantially the same height with respect to the passenger cabin floor of the aircraft with an opened aircraft door.